I’ve tried to donate every year even if it was 25 bucks as a young woman to pay it forward. 🙂

If you want more I go on financial aide, you can go to Punhou School and hit the Financial Aide link. It is need based. Must submit even Federal income tax forms.

Hence my point is not that schools do it, but are there delineated metrics that define the flexibility of required admission criteria? For example, say school A had a policy that one needs a minimum of 85 to gain admission, but you got this great kid and athlete who has 83, well, not to much of problem, to give him/her a bump. However, what if that score is now 69, and you have 3 dozen applicants who all have 85 or higher, now the problem becomes much more complex and furthermore, has a potential negative outcome on 36 other kids…..

These are not straight-forward binary problems, and they test any institution. Let me say again, I don’t fault or speak in a pejorative tone about Punahou or any school in this situation. Moreover, I see the great opportunity and lofty mission that it seeks to fulfill. Being a local guy, who went all the way from k-12, at public school, public housing, hawaiian homestead, raised by a female single parent, but also along the way played college football, and now at one of most elite institutions in the nation–I think I speak of a situation in which fairness is hard to measure, and we all want to be a force for good for our community and state. That said, not everyone has exceptional athletic ability, and so we hopefully proceed forward that we are all striving to achieve malama pono, and do the best we can, for the greatest amount of people.

I truly believe in providing children with an education as long as the financial aide standards are the same across the board. That a child regardless of athletic ability or not has an opportunity for a free education. Someone mentioned that housing was also provided to relieve the burden of commuting to and from school. Is that also offered to families not blessed with athletic children? I would hope so. What if an athlete didn’t catch the eye of a coach but wanted so bad to attend the school. Could they approach the staff to ask for financial aide?

It’s about the ability to play. I don’t believe there is anything wrong with recruiting or using financial aid to lure athletes. The ILH should abolish the rules which outlaw it so the coaches are not forced to lie.